Reality TV in City Council drama

Labor committee to probe 'wage theft' by producers.

Pawn Stars, filmed at this Las Vegas shop, and other nonfiction TV shows are being eyes by city lawmakers.

The City Council has found a new industry to attack: reality TV. The council's labor committee will hold a hearing June 25, titled "The Real Reality of Reality TV," on allegations of overtime violations and related "wage theft." It will also drum up attention for council members' labor allies who have been fighting reality-TV producers for almost a year.

Councilman Daneek Miller, who chairs the committee, last week dispatched letters to ITV Studio, a U.K.-based company with offices in Manhattan, and ITV subsidiary Leftfield Pictures requesting their executives to testify. The History Channel's Pawn Stars, A&E's The First 48, Discovery's Fatal Encounters and National Geographic's Doomsday Preppers are being scrutinized.

"Everybody thinks, wow, these are glamorous jobs, and the salary must be commensurate with that," Mr. Miller said. "And the fact of the matter is they're not. It's another underpaid industry."

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The Writers Guild of America East, which tipped off Mr. Miller to these issues, last year surveyed 1,200 writers, producers and freelancers in reality TV and found they were losing, on average, $30,000 each in unpaid overtime and other benefits.

"It's just incredibly inequitable," said one freelance producer who has worked on shows aired by PBS and the Weather Channel, and recalled toiling for 12 to 14 hours a day sans overtime pay.

"I feel like these [production] studios are taking advantage of people who are professionals," the producer said.

It's unclear whether ITV or Leftfield will testify. "ITV Studios America is in ongoing talks with the WGA East and has no further comment at this stage," a spokeswoman said. Leftfield Pictures also declined to comment.

The scrutiny could hurt the reality-TV industry's chances of winning a piece of New York state's $420 million-a-year film and television tax-credit program. The industry employs about 130,000 workers, mostly in scripted media, which is eligible for tax breaks. Yet the scriptwriting and editing of reality TV constitutes 40% of New York film and TV work, Mr. Miller said.

Council members are also pressuring car washes over wage issues and worker conditions. Restaurants were a focus of paid-sick-leave bills passed recently.

The state Labor Department, not the city, enforces wage laws and investigates claims of employer abuses. Short of dressing down industry executives, there's little the council can do. A spokeswoman for the Labor Department said there were no specific -complaints on file about abuses in reality TV.

The endgame for the council and the Writers Guild, though, does not appear to be regulation or unionization, but an unenforceable "code of conduct" for the industry—and media attention.

Lowell Peterson, executive director of the WGA East, acknowledged that dragging a few production companies through the mud could send a message that abuses won't be tolerated.

"Television is a medium that requires public support—they need audiences to care," Mr. Peterson said. "I think there's some sensitivity to having scrutiny."